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Star Gladiator - Episode 1: Final Crusade
Star Gladiator - Episode 1: Final Crusade is an 3D fighting game developed by Capcom. The game was Capcom's first attempt at an arcade 3D fighting game, which at the time (1996) was well received by many Capcom fighting fans as several cast members bore some resemblance to the characters of Star Wars.thumb|300px|right|Intro The System 11 hardware this game ran on allowed an easy home translation to the PlayStation, and it received a better, widespread reception there. However, Star Gladiator was hardly the smash hit Capcom may have hoped for, and their future forays into the 3D fighting genre (Rival Schools, Street Fighter EX franchise) seldom fared much better. Eventually, the game was released for PlayStation in November 1996 and followed by a sequel, Plasma Sword, which was only ported to the Sega Dreamcast despite much speculation of a PlayStation conversion. Story In the year 2348, humans have been exploring the vast reaches of outer space for the past four centuries and have established peaceful contact with various alien civilizations. People now emigrate from one planet to another and life is generally good. However, some problems arise with a couple of alien races, so the Earth Federation begins its research in creating a Plasma-power weapon to help protect the Earth from any possible outside threats. Dr. Edward Bilstein: a Nobel Prize-winning German-American prestigious physicist for the Earth Federation, uncovers the secret to humanity's "sixth sense": a technique for capturing the energy of the human mind and discovers how to use it as an energy source he calls "Plasma Power". The specific Plasma weapon is built, using mental power as its basis and that Bilstein is able to gain fame and fortune for the invention, but it is soon discovered by the Earth Federation that Bilstein had experimented on actual human bodies during his research on Plasma Power and that he's immediately arrested and exiled from Earth, being imprisoned in a floating prison satellite that orbits the Planet Zeta while the development of the specific Plasma weapon is indefinitely suspended. Word of Earth's possession of a super weapon immediately spreads throughout the universe and that it instantly reduces hostile confrontations while the name Dr. Edward Bilstein is completely forgotten from within the minds of everyone. However, four years later, a report from Zeta states that an Earth Federation army base from upon the planet was attacked and immediately destroyed by a small group of rebels calling themselves the "Fourth Empire" and that Bilstein, who had built himself a powerful cyborg body and managed to escape from the floating prison satellite on Zeta, is the one who's leading this group of dangerous individuals. With several other similar reports coming from other nearby planets and realizing that the specific pattern of attacks is leading right back to Earth, a panicked Earth Federation has only one recourse: to find people who could utilize Plasma Power in their own given accord and attempt to stop Bilstein from within a last, desperate effort before the mad genius can invade and conquer Earth and the rest of the universe with his nascent Fourth Empire. All of Earth's hopes rest in the project codenamed "Star Gladiator". Characters * Hayato * June * Gamof * Gore * Bilstein * Saturn Dyer- A green-skinned cone-headed alien who is named after the planet where he comes from in the Andromeda Galaxy (but not the one present in Earth's Solar System and that he fights with a set of Plasma Yo-Yos while having quite an eccentric personality towards those who meet him. Saturn is a well-known and renowned street performer who is somewhat of the comic relief in the protagonist group, with a clown-like attitude and a perennial ten-mile-wide smile on his face. Upon coming to Earth in order to enjoy his personal hobby of theater while on a new assignment to research life on Earth, Saturn learns about the threat of the Fourth Empire and decides to join the Star Gladiator project in order to help protect both Earth and his home planet. Saturn makes a cameo appearance in one of Hayato's win poses in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. * Franco Gerelt - A renowned and honorable Spanish matador who fights with a Plasma Rapier. Unlike most members of the Fourth Empire, Gerelt is a forced ally of Bilstein. Seeing the strong potential that Gerelt has from within his fighting skills, Bilstein had kidnapped Gerelt's wife and daughter with the help of a rival matador who had envied Gerelt's popularity and skill and framed Gerelt for the kidnapping and through this, Bilstein threatens to kill Gerelt's wife and daughter unless Gerelt follows his direct command. Making sure that he also had Gerelt's willingness, Bilstein had implanted a bomb in his chest, forcing Gerelt to commit horrible crimes against mankind for if he refuses, the bomb would be triggered and go off. All that Gerelt wants is to be free to save his family. * Vector - A prototype assassin robot created by Bilstein who uses a Plasma Gun. Vector's only directive is to seek and destroy every single human being. Vector makes a cameo appearance in Roll's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, where Roll reprograms the heartless robot, along with Huitzil from Darkstalkers, into a caring and loving individual who not only helps out with Dr. Light (Roll's creator), but also, in the Japanese version of the game (known as Cross Generation of Heroes), displays a newfound affinity for human children. * Rimgal - June's father, the former English scientist Michael Milliam, turned into a Velociraptor dinosaur who wields a Bone Club in battle after Bilstein had experimented on him, mixing his human DNA with dinosaur DNA. Rimgal fights to try and control his transformation. However, Rimgal ultimately fails, and fearing his primal instincts will overtake his human sensitivity and end up having him kill his daughter, Rimgal kills himself in the end. Rimgal is the only regular character not to return in Plasma Sword (along with Kappah, who is a secret character). * Zelkin Fiskekrogen- A blue-feathered bird-like humanoid alien who comes from the Planet Klondike which lies from within the Andromeda Galaxy and that he wields a Plasma Claw in battle. Zelkin, who is known for being a brave and noble fighting warrior for both his people and his planet fights alongside with Bilstein because of his loathing of humans, who nearly destroyed his bird-like humanoid alien race from within a past war. He is also an old acquaintance of Hayato. * Kappah Nosuke- (Sub-Boss and Secret Character) - A green-skinned turtle-like humanoid alien who comes from the Planet Kappa which lies from within the Cygnus Galaxy and that he wields a Plasma Spear in battle. Kappah is based on a Japanese legendary creature known as a Kappa, which is a type of water sprite that usually inhabits various ponds and rivers throughout most of Japan. Kappah and his race are known for having a military and war-like lifestyle on their home planet and that all of them despise peace and friendship, living only for war and fighting. Kappah himself has a bitter and belligerent nature and personality as a military soldier, which lead him to join Bilstein and the Fourth Empire, who in turn would promise to defend his home planet from any potential outside threats. Kappah plays very similar to Gerelt barring a few specials, although the characters are in no way related. Also, Kappah does not have a character select screen portrait in favor of a zucchini pair image instead. A sub-boss and secret character. * Blood - (Sub-Boss and Secret Character) Credits Arcade Version Staff Director: Hideaki Itsuno, Eiichiro Sasaki Character Design: Akiman, Motokazu Sakai Title Design: Shoei Computer Graphics: Blbon, Monkey-Kick, Tako, Sensei, Nezumi-Otoko Motion Design: Hitoshi "T" Nishio, Nɐoki Fukushima, King Joe, Naoki Fujisawa, Shinya ♨ Kitamura, Ball Boy, Jun Matsumura (28), Toru Takaoka, Kazuko ♥ Kawanaka, Masaru Nishigaichi Stage & Effects Design: Fukumoyan, Yasuto Takahashi, Takuji Mishima, Kouichi Takeda, Takayuki Kosaka Main Program: Yuichi "Gamof" Kagawa Player Program: Morimichi Suzuki, Katsuhiko Sometani, Atsushi Fukushima Enemy Program: Panda Visual Effects Program: Kohei Akiyama, Hero Hero System Program: Dome, Meijin, Chabin Type-M Music & Sound Effects: Isao Ave, Yuko Kadota, Michio "XTC" Sakurai Voice Actor: Hisao Egawa, Megumi Ogata, Daisuke Gohri, Kazumi Tanaka, Nobutoshi Hayashi, Osamu Hosoi Special Thanks: CBX, Yuuya, Futoshi Kuwahara, Hiroaki "X68K" Kondo, Kin, Sakomizu, Ritsuko Naka, Mr. Shiraiwa, Steve Lee, Mr. Matt Taylor, Mr. Eric Suzuki, Ms. Magdalena Viloria F. (Capcom Mexico), Ms. Harumi Yamashita (Romstar Brazil), Capcom All Staff Producer: Furoboh Aoki General Producer: Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Yoshiki Okamoto Presented by: Capcom Co., Ltd. PSX Version Staff Arcade Director: Hideaki Itsuno, Eiichiro Sasaki Consumer Director: Yoichirou Ikeda Character Design: Akiman Title Design: Shoei Computer Graphics: Blbon, Monkey-Kick, Tako, Sensei, Nezumi-Otoko Motion Design: Hitoshi "T" Nishio, Nɐoki Fukushima, King Joe, Naoki Fujisawa, Shinya ♨ Kitamura, Ball Boy, Hiroki Tsuru Stage & Effects Design: Fukumoyan, Yasuto Takahashi, Takuji Mishima, Takayuki Kosaka Main Program: Yuichi "Okaz" Kagawa Player Program: Morimichi Suzuki, Katsuhiko Sometani, Atsushi Fukushima Enemy Program: Panda Visual Effects Program: Kohei Akiyama, Hero Hero System Program: Dome, Meijin, Chabin Type-M Music & Sound Effects: Isao Ave, Yuko Kadota, Michio "XTC" Sakurai Voice Actor: Hisao Egawa, Megumi Ogata, Daisuke Gohri, Kazumi Tanaka, Nobutoshi Hayashi, Osamu Hosoi Special Thanks: CBX, Yuuya, Futoshi Kuwahara, Hiroaki "X68K" Kondo, Kin, Sakomizu, Ritsuko Naka, Mr. Shiraiwa, Kouichi Takeda, Steve Lee, Mr. Matt Taylor, Mr. Eric Suzuki, Ms. Magdalena Viloria F. (Capcom Mexico), Ms. Harumi Yamashita (Romstar Brazil), Capcom All Staff Producer: Katsumi "Furoboh" Aoki General Producer: Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Yoshiki Okamoto Presented by: Capcom Co., Ltd. Gallery Image:StarGladSaturn.png|''Saturn'' Image:PlasmaSaturn.png|''Saturn'' Portrait Image:StarGladGerelt.png|''Gerelt'' Image:PlasmaGerelt.png|''Gerelt'' Portrait Image:StarGladVector.png|''Vector'' Image:Vector.png|''Vector'' CG Model Image:StarGladRimgal.png|''Rimgal'' Image:Zelkin.png|''Zelkin'' Image:StarGladZelkin.png|''Zelkin'' Plasma Sword Image:Kappah.png|''Kappah'' Box Art Image:StarGladJapan.png|''Japan'' Image:StarGladCoverScan.png|''U.S.'' Image:StarGladEurope.png|''Europe'' Merchandise and Advertisements Image:StarGladGuidebook.png|''Guidebook'' Image:StarGladStrategyGuide.png|''Strategy Guide'' Image:StarGladFlyer.png|''Arcade Flyer'' Image:StarGladSecretFile.png|''Arcade Flyer'' Secret File Image:StarGladiatorAdvertisement.png|''Advertisement'' Category:Games Category:Fighting Games Category:Arcade Games Category:PlayStation Games